


Talk to the Wind

by merelypassingtime



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: (about Eddie), Character Study, Christmas Party, Other, Ugly Holiday Sweaters, sorry for this, venom is a good boyfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 19:19:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16959981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merelypassingtime/pseuds/merelypassingtime
Summary: A conversation at the office Holiday party has Venom asking Eddie questions about himself.





	Talk to the Wind

“So, what got you into journalism, Mr Brock?”

Eddie sighed, hoping it would be lost amidst the chatter of his steadily more incapacitated coworkers and their increasingly off-key caroling. Once again he wished he could have found a way to skip the office holiday party. 

He hated these events, hated mingling and small talk and all the social jocking and less than subtle upstaging that writers seemed given to. Unfortunately, his new editor had insisted he attend, and he was too new at the job to fight back, so, with bad grace and a lot of grumbling, he’d given in. He regretted not fighting harder when his editor told with malicious glee that it was an Ugly Sweater party and that festive knitwear was mandatory, leaving Eddie in the unenviable position of having to spend good money on something specifically intended to be hideous.

Unexpectedly, Venom had come to his rescue there. After hearing ‘free food,’ he’d started his own campaign to go to the party, even if it meant suffering the indignity of forming himself into the required sweater. Eddie wasn’t sure how Venom had managed to become fuzzy but he had. The jet black sweater he’d become, complete with wide, pearlescent eyes and a ghoulish, toothy grin, had received several compliments and had the added bonus of making it easier to sneak hors d'oeuvres to Venom throughout the evening, since Eddie only to ‘spill’ them into his waiting mouth.

So far things hadn't been as bad as Eddie expected, buoyed by Venom’s snarky comments and the fact that most of the staff didn’t quite know how to feel about his reinstatement and the slightly stranger Eddie who’d returned from his ‘hiatus’ and therefore left him alone. All and all, his game plan of sticking to the fringes of the party, hitting the food table as often as he could without drawing undue attention, and leaving early had been going beautifully.

But now that strategy had failed.

He turned his attention from the full paper plate in his hands to the kid leaning against the wall next to him in an imitation of casual aloofness that was completely ruined by the way they were practically vibrating with excitement. God, but she’s painfully young, Eddie thought. Probably an intern, still all caught up in the glamour of being a reporter, earnest and starry eyed and ready to take on the world. Eddie tried to remember when being so young and full of fire and righteousness and failed. Nowadays he just felt old, used up, and in need of a drink- not that Venom let him get properly drunk anymore anyway.

“Well?” The young woman prompted, “Why did you become a journalist?” Her expression was sliding from mildly interested towards actually curiosity. It was a dangerous look from any reporter and Eddie rushed to head her off before she smelled a story.

“Oh, you know,” he deflected. “Cosmic punishment for unimaginably wrongs in a past life.” After waiting for the obligatory laugh, he asked, “How about you?”

That was all it took, she launched into her own tale about becoming a journalist, while Eddie nodded at the right places and asked the right questions to keep her talking with the ease of long practice.

After a few minutes, as the woman gushed about some prize she won in high school for writing, Venom stirred in his mind. **But you didn’t tell her why you became a journalist.**

“Well, no,” Eddie thought back at him, “but she didn’t really want to know anyways.”

**Then why did she ask you?**

“Well, she knew it would be social convention for me to ask back and she wanted to tell me why she became one.”

**If you knew that was all she wanted, then why did you do it?**

“It’s polite. She’s just nervous and excited. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it doesn’t hurt to listen.”

**Yes, it does. You are bored.**

“I’m not really bored per say.”

**Yes, you are. I am in your head and I know. And if you weren’t bored you wouldn’t be talking to me.**

“Fair point, love,” Eddie conceded, “Maybe I’m a little bored. But it’s really important to her to be able to tell someone.”

**But, it is not important for you to be able to talk about yourself?**

“No. It really isn’t. I don’t need her validation like she wants mine, and I’m old enough to know that nobody ever really cares about what you have to say. Everyone’s just waiting for their turn to talk about themselves. Why would I share my life with someone who’ll just be bored?”

**Like you are bored right now.**

“Exactly.”

**I care about your story.**

“I know, love.” Eddie placated, but Venom could feel that he didn’t believe it.

If Eddie had been paying more attention to the symbiote he would have felt brooding in the silence that followed, but just then a second colleague drifted up and Eddie pushed the conversation and Venom to the back of his mind.

It wasn’t until hours later, when they were almost home from the party, that he noticed Venom’s reticence. He was rolling the bike to a stop in the alleyway next to their building, huddled deep into his jacket and wishing he hadn’t forgotten his gloves, when he started making a teasing comment to Venom only to realize he was alone in his head. 

Usually the two of them fought for control whenever they rode the motorcycle, Venom pushing to go faster while Eddie tried to keep the few points left on his licence, and he wondered if their first ride being a city-spanning car chase gave Venom unreasonable expectations. But the jab he was going to make about their potential for a future career in illegal street racing died on his lips in the face of Venom’s silence, a silence Eddie now recognized had been going on since the middle of the party, even through them winning the ribbon for Ugliest Sweater.

A spike of cold fear hit him, a gut reaction he felt whenever Venom was absence from his mind these days and during the nightmares he continued to have about the rocket blast killing Venom, leaving him forever alone.

**Here, Eddie. Don’t worry,** Venom said as quickly as the panic started.

Black tendrils appeared on the backs of his hands, wrapping around them, strong and blessedly warm, somewhere between a glove and a squeezing hand.

“Sorry, love,” Eddie apologized, squeezing back and starting again to walk towards the entrance to their building.

**It is okay. We are always here with you.**

“I know, I know. I just worry sometimes.”

**No worrying. Let’s get home and eat!**

“We just ate half a buffet table’s worth of appetizers!”

**Yeah, appetizers. Appetizers aren’t a meal.**

“They are if you eat enough of them!” Eddie argued back. The normalcy of the squabble helping to further ease the knot of panic half-formed in his chest. “And don’t think I missed you soaking a sleeve in the chocolate fountain.”

**Why would they have a fountain of chocolate unless they meant for it to be bathed in?**

Eddie opened his mouth to argue but thought better of it. Honestly, Venom made a good point, and he wasn’t sure that given the opportunity and a large enough fountain, he wouldn’t bath in chocolate himself.

**Mmm… You’d be delicious covered in chocolate,** Venom purred. **An Eddie bonbon.**

“Yeah, well, thanks,” Eddie replied, a blush warming his cheeks. “Though, I might be more flattered if I hadn’t seen you eat out of garbage cans.”

**I cannot help if I like trash. And you should be glad I do, after all I love you.**

“Ouch! I think I liked it better when you were being quiet.”

**That is not true.**

“No. No, it isn’t, love. I hate it when you’re quiet too long like that. Were you just dealing with the overload of greasy party food? I told you not to eat so many of the chicken wings.”

**I like the chicken wings! The bones are crunchy.**

“You aren’t really suppose to eat the bones, maybe that’s what made you sick.”

**No! I wasn’t sick, I was just thinking.**

Eddie asked, “Mmm? And what were you thinking about so hard?”

**You.** Venom answered simply. **Why did you become a journalist, Eddie?**

Puzzled by the non-sequitur, Eddie asked, “What? Why?”

**Because I want to know.**

“Oh, okay. Well, I was last in line when we were picking jobs in college and it was the only one left.”

**No.** Venom said it so firmly that Eddie fumbled getting the key into the second deadbolt on their apartment door. **No, that is what you did to the boring woman tonight. You told a joke and you made her talk about herself, and she didn’t care. But I care. I want to know the truth.**

Things clicked into place, and Eddie had to smile. “Aw, darling. That is sweet, but it’s not that a great story.”

**It doesn’t need to be a great story, it is about you so I want to hear it.**

Eddie couldn’t help but be touched by the request, made so earnestly. Still, it had been an exhausting evening and he wasn’t really sure he was up to a trudge down that dark part of memory lane, especially now that they were home. 

He stepped into the apartment, relieved to be able to close the door behind them, a flimsy barrier between them and the rest of the world. Leaning against it he sighed, not quite whining, “But we are home. Why don’t we just make a snack and stream the Great British Bake Off?”

**But Eddie, you deserve to have someone listen to your story.**

“Thousands of people read my articles every week, you know. I’m moderately famous.”

**And so humble. Those aren’t really about you though.**

“Yeah, they are at least a little bit about me. As much as journalism is about telling the unbiased truth, I also pick the stories and the angles I cover. There’s some of me in every article, and that’s enough sharing for me.”

**No, it is not,** Venom said stubbornly. **Everyone should want to know about you. You are the best human.**

Eddie shrugged, still leaning against the front door. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone on this planet is going to agree with you there, darling, and that’s fine. Like I said, I don’t need a bunch of strangers listening to my sorry life story, not when I have you. After all, how many people are lucky enough to have the love of their love living in their head, able to actually relive those stories with them?”

Venom made a satisfied purring noise, and Eddie felt happiness flowing from him even as he continued sulkily, **But, I still want to hear why you became a journalist.**

“And I want some pizza rolls to recover from the hard and harrowing twenty minute journey from the buffet table to here.”

**Pizza rolls!**

“But, you know, if you’d rather hear the long, long story of my descent into journalism…” Eddie said, trailing off.

**No! Pizza rolls now!**

Already moving towards the small kitchen, Eddie agreed, “Of course, love.”

**And while they cook, you will tell me the story,** Venom demanded. 

Eddie sighed, his hopes of distracting the persistent parasite destroyed. He marshaled his thoughts while he pulled out the family-sized bag of pizza rolls and shook a couple dozen out onto a baking tray.

**More!**

“No. You aren’t even really hungry and I know it.”

**Always hungry for pizza rolls.**

“You’d better be careful, if you keep eating like this you are gonna develop love handles.”

**Like yours?**

“Hey! That’s uncalled for!” Eddie objected, bringing the point home by deliberately sweeping a handful of rolls back into the bag and twisting the top closed.

**Awww,** Venom whined. **But Eddie... It’s okay, real humans have curves.**

“Who’d have thought you’d be a chubby chaser.”

**It should have been obvious. After all chubby people taste better, tender and not all stringy.**

“And on that note, I might never eat again,” Eddie said. But he still slipped the tray into the preheating oven.

As soon as the door clicked close Venom said, **Okay, we have fifteen minutes. Tell me now.**

“Alright, I guess,” Eddie said, resigned. He deciding to skip over all the irrelevant details, the who, what, and when of his career and cut right to the why. He could feel Venom stirring through his thoughts, unhappily at the omissions but he didn’t say anything so Eddie started. “Honestly, I just sorta drifted into it. I wasn’t too bad at writing, all my teachers told me so, and I was always good at listening to people.”

**Like you listened to that woman tonight?**

“Yeah, exactly.” Staring at the pile of dirty dishes in the sink without really seeing them, Eddie struggled to put his thoughts into words. “So many people are ignored and isolated, with no one to listen to them. I wanted to help them. There is so much news about the big stuff, the presidents, the celebrities, the wars and earthquakes and stuff, that the little people don’t have a voice. They needed someone who cares.”

**Umm,** Venom murmured in agreement. **Just like you do.**

Eddie blinked, refocusing on reality. “Sorry? Like I what?”

**Like you need someone who cares. You are out there, listening to everyone and taking their stories and caring about them, but no one is listening to your story, and caring about you.**

“You make me sound like Humanitarian of the Year, selflessly serving others without a thought for myself and I have it on good authority that’s not true,” Eddie said. A memory of Anne flashed through his mind, anger in her voice as she called him pathologically self absorbed, of Drake pointing out how he just used people and hurt them for his own gain, and burned underneath were the memories of his father, drunk and belligerent, screaming at him for being alive when it should have been his mother who lived. He flinched as their words collectively hit him once again.

**But it is true, Eddie. You are a good man. They didn’t know you like I do.**

“Well Anne-”

Venom cut him off. **No, not her either. Not if she thought you were working for glory and attention. She should have tried to see your heart, but she never really looked past your jokes and defection, did she? To understand you.**

“That implies there is anything under all my jokes and deflections,” Eddie deflected jokingly.

He felt the undefinable sensation of Venom tricking out of his back to form a face a few inches from his and glare at him. 

**You can’t fool me. I know everything about you, and you never do anything just for the attention. You do it because you need so much to protect people who can’t protect themselves.**

“Well, even if you are right, the attention and praise isn’t bad.”

**I am always right, and if you enjoyed the recognition, than you wouldn’t be uncomfortable right now.**

Eddie shrugged, “Okay, fair point. But if you are always right and you already knew all this, then why did you bother asking me in the first place?”

**Because you didn’t know, and you should know that you are good and that it is okay to talk about yourself. We are never boring.**

“Yeah, well, maybe. But introspection isn’t really my thing.”

**Or deep thought,** Venom agreed. **Or any thought.**

“Hey!”

Smugly Venom said, **Truth hurts, Eddie. It is lucky you have me to do the thinking for you.**

“Meaning I’m just here to look pretty?”

**Don’t worry, you do it very well,** Venom answered, butting his head against Eddie’s cheek.

Eddie smiled, “Well you aren’t too back looking yourself, babe.” He planted a kiss on the top of the shiny black head still resting against his cheek. They stood like that a moment until the oven began to buzz and Eddie had to move back towards it.

“Are you done analyzing me? Or should I eat these pizza rolls all alone while you continue to think deep thoughts for me?” Eddie asked.

**No! Hungry!**

“I knew you’d say that. Now who is the smart one?” Eddie asked, but Venom’s mouth was too full full of pizza roll to answer. “Careful! You’ll burn yourself.”

Venom narrowed his eyes in clear scorn, before diving for the tray and another roll.

Eddie grinned, and after depositing the tray on their new coffee table he fished around in the couch cushions for the remote. Maybe he’d get to watch an episode of Bake Off after all.


End file.
